Agreements: the false isolation of Venezuela and its oil industry

Several players willing to play in the Venezuelan oil sand, and there are few production agreements, refining, oil export and import of industrial materials that Pdvsa has carried out in 2017.

• Venezuela this year assumed the presidency of the Association of Caribbean States. Held in March I Cooperation Conference that body, which Petrocaribe took the opportunity to strengthen relations of cooperation with member countries. Alexander Yánez, executive secretary of Petrocaribe,  said at that time  that "while the arm leverage cooperation, complementarity and solidarity is oil, it is essential to develop the social matrix, economic diversification and cultural".

• Rosneft, in April, made an  advance payment to Pdvsa of 1 000 million dollars  for future oil supplies after Igor Sechin, CEO of the Russian company said its investment plans in Venezuela's oil industry would be held.

• Venezuelan Minister Nelson Martínez then flew to the Islamic Republic of Iran in April this year to meet with the oil minister of that country, Bijan Namdar Zangeneh. He reported that during the meeting with his Iranian counterpart discussed the Summit of Heads of State producing countries of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non proposal OPEC President Nicolás Maduro, in addition to strengthening the commitments in the energy field.

• The first barrel of oil  was extracted  by Petrovictoria the joint venture, with 40% of the Russian oil company Rosneft whose production operations are in the Carabobo 2 North Block.

• In June, the Venezuelan state energy maximum  signed a new agreement  with the Russian company Rosneft for forming a new joint venture in Anzoátegui, called Perforosven. Pdvsa said that it "strengthens relations with Russia and created to provide oilfield services, including drilling, rehabilitation and refurbishment of wells, well related to the acquisition of equipment, devices, services and materials drilling south of Anzoátegui state activities" .

• The Bolivarian Government signed in July a memorandum of understanding with the Company Horizontal Well drillings (HWD Production LLC), whose project is "to drill about 200 new wells in the Orinoco Oil Belt in order to increase production by 150 thousand barrels in three years ", according to the Venezuelan state, which would end with the creation of a joint venture.

• Despite the siege of Venezuela, Vice President Shell gas area for South America and Africa, Mounir Bouaziz, he said that the Anglo - Dutch company "has many reasons to participate in projects with Venezuela and that the country has a unique position in terms of reserves and its geographical location, which allows distribution to the Caribbean, Europe and Asia ". This  he said in a meeting with Nelson Martínez , now president of Pdvsa, recently August.

• Martinez, acting Minister also met in August "with Benoit de la Fouchardiere, CEO of the company (French) Perenco and CEO Nicolás Serre, to evaluate the participation of that company in the Venezuelan oil industry, through joint ventures Petrowarao and Baripetrol. Perenco showed interest in making an investment in the order of $ 400 million, through the expansion of the joint venture Petrowarao, with the addition of new production areas in the Lake Maracaibo ". In  press release  the possibility of creating a joint venture with Petrochemical Venezuela, SA (Pequiven) for gas production, also in Zulia state was also stuck.

• Another French oil company, Total, and has investments in Venezuela in the form of joint venture, Petrocedeño name, and looking with Pdvsa increased production and incorporate more technology. In addition raised more involved in heavy oil projects in Petrocedeño and Camp Yucal Placer (Guarico state) in the gas area. The meeting between Nelson Martinez and senior vice president for American oil company said Michel Hourcard,  occurred in August .

• The presidents of PDVSA and Rosneft Russia  held a meeting  in the Morichal District of Monagas state in the framework of a meeting with workers of the oil industry last August, which reviewed the progress of energy projects being developed in joint ventures PetroMonagas and Petrovictoria, of Carabobo and Improvement Divisions Orinoco Oil Belt Hugo Chávez. The two companies more than 500 thousand barrels per day are produced. They talked about the expansion of PetroMonagas projects and implementation of a Strategic Operational Plan Petrovictoria.

Pdvsa also reported in the same month that the new oil minister, Eulogio Del Pino, and the Russian ambassador to Venezuela, Vladimir Zaemskiy, "strategically reviewed joint investment plans for the different Russian companies The meeting included a review of the production and investment plans in the Petrozamora joint venture, where Gazprombank is a 40% shareholder, and the meeting was attended by Igor Gitman, Business Director of Gazprombank and who defined actions that will guarantee the fulfillment of the plan of development of this mixed company ". In addition, "issues related to the next Monitoring and Coordination Committee of the countries of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Non-OPEC, which will take place in Vienna, Austria, on September 22" will be discussed. strategy for the recovery of oil prices.

• "As part of a roundtable discussion held by the China-Venezuela High Level Joint Commission agreed to monitor the entire investment portfolio from the point of marketing of products from Venezuela to the Asian nation, as well as strategic agreements cooperation in oil and other opportunities that are emerging between the two nations, "said the Venezuelan state. The expansion of China's stake in the Sinovensa joint venture, which operates in the Orinoco Oil Belt Hugo Chávez, is practically a fact. Vice President of Planning and Knowledge and external director of PDVSA, Ricardo Menéndez, said that "we have a portfolio of investments with China in oil in the order of 9 billion dollars" and that "the Chinese oil company is interested in participating in the reactivation of 800 wells in the belt, which will generate an increase in production of 42 thousand barrels of crude oil per day. " Likewise, Minister Eulogio Del Pino reported on the development of a new and second refinery in China in the Nanhai District, which "is opening up a space for our oil, added to the market in the Asian area. very aggressive marketing that has been developing with a joint venture with China that offers us a cost reduction advantage in the transport of crude. " He explained that the periodic review of agreements "is accompanied by visits to the operational areas to monitor the processes live and to follow up the good progress of the investment projects, leveraged by the China Development Bank." Nelson Martínez, President of PDVSA, stressed the importance of "the benefits of these cooperation agreements that are not only quantified in economic terms, but are also reflected by the growth in the technological field. country is reflected in the high level of technology that our workers are getting: it is largely an invaluable investment in the future in terms of human potential. "

• The national oil company reported on September 5 that President Nicolás Maduro held a working meeting with Chevron's president for America and Africa, Clay Neff, and with Ali Moshiri, an adviser to Chevron's CEO, "in order to explore mechanisms that allow to continue the relationship "between PDVSA and the US company" before the blockade decreed by the United States government against the financial operations of the joint ventures they have in Venezuela. "

The agreements outlined dismantle the myth that Venezuela is isolated.

The agreements with this new international block go hand in hand with the industrial investment carried out at the Puerto La Cruz Refinery in Anzoátegui state, in order to optimize and expand the processing of the heavy and extra-heavy oil reserves of the Petroleum Strip of the Orinoco.

This project is called Conversión Profunda, whose major foreign investors are Japan's Hyundai Engineering & Construction and China's Wison Engineering.

Dong Hua, vice president of Wison, said: "The import of crude from Venezuela occupies 10% of all imports from China. Our demand is increasing daily.

Wison is a company that is prepared to continue investing in Venezuela for a long time. "

Wison would also participate in gas processing in eastern Venezuela through access to Asian financing funds (China Development Bank and Asian Infrastructure Bank), in order to boost the production of hydrocarbons and gas in the Latin American region .